Even after a senseless murder on the South Side, there is something special there

EDITOR:

I love Youngstown, not because of Mill Creek Park or Handel’s ice cream, but because of its people. I am a Catholic priest, and I visited Youngstown for a summer before my ordination to priestly ministry. I spent the most important summer of my life (before the most important day of my life) at St. Dominic Church — in whose parking lot the life of a holy, senior woman was senselessly and violently taken.

The protection of life — especially that which is defenseless — is in terrible need of restoration. And justice is non-negotiable; it must be sought out and enacted. But when I first heard the both sickening and saddening news, my first response was anger, which is not simply understandable, but actually the appropriate response to such evil. However, my anger wanted (and struggles to want) something more than whatever it is that “justice” goes by these days.

So I thank God for the people of Youngstown. Many of the people I know are parishioners of a parish in whose boundaries they are no longer able to live. But in speaking with some of them, three things were consistently mentioned. And in the midst of the angry frustration that this tragedy necessarily arouses, I want to share these three things, which might help purify the vision that is needed for all to see through this evil haze, whatever one’s religious status.

First, not a single person was worried about the dear, departed woman. Not a one. It’s still hard for me to think of this with dry eyes, and I’m a priest. I’m no stranger to death or to suffering. I spent my first priestly summer in one of the world’s most important cancer hospitals, and I’ll only get more familiar with pain, anguish, and loss. But while everyone lamented the evil of the event, no one feared for that dear, devoted woman of the parish because of their firm conviction that she is with the One whom she spent her entire life loving.

And now, she is praying for us.

Second, they were instead concerned for the murderer. To be sure, justice must be rendered. But people were truly concerned. What kind of person would shoot a harmless old lady in the head on a Saturday morning outside of her church? A twisted, evil and dangerous person (whatever possible diagnoses of mental illness aside). That is, a person in desperate need to find goodness, even as he must inevitably meet his judgment. A person who, probably, not only lives in circumstances that we could antiseptically call “dysfunctional,” but a person who lives in a hell of hatred for life, a hell that must ultimately boil down to hatred for oneself and one’s Maker.

Finally, I was told that the weekend Mass services were packed. Packed. These are people who drive extra distances to attend “St. Dom’s.” Why? Because that’s where truth meets error and love meets malice head-on. Because that’s where the hope of resolving questions that a world cannot answer is found in the gifts of divine mystery and personal fellowship. Because that’s where the most important events of our lives take place, as they did for that sweet, quiet angel, whose life was and will evermore be spent with God.

I love the people of Youngstown because they are people of God. Community recreation centers and increased police enforcement are needed and will improve much. But there is only one reality that can truly resurrect life from death, not only for a person, but even for a city.

Rev. BRUNO M. SHAH, O.P.

Dominican House of Studies

Washington, D.C.